The 2018 playoffs are underway! For some baseball fans, that means cheering on your favorite team or just watching some exciting baseball games. For others, including myself, the offseason can’t get here soon enough because we have no rooting interest and/or just really love free agency and trade rumors.
Once the offseason begins, things will move quickly. A five-day window following the conclusion of the World Series allows for teams to have exclusive negotiating rights with their own pending free agents. By the time that window closes, teams will have reinstated players from the 60-day disabled list or restricted list, and all contract options will have been exercised or declined. Players with an opt-out clause will also have made their decision on whether to stay or become a free agent.
Since several teams will be above the 40-man roster limit once players are reinstated, there will be a flurry of transactions — mostly minor trades and players being designated for assignment or outrighted — prior to the start of the free agency period. These first rounds of cuts are usually not difficult. Typically, teams have at least a few relievers or bench players who are expendable because they are buried on the depth chart and not expected to play an integral role on the MLB roster in the foreseeable future.
Freeing up spots to prepare for December’s Rule 5 draft, however, will be much more challenging. For example, the Padres, who will need to clear two spots initially, could have as many as six or seven prospects that they’ll want to add to the 40-man roster. The front office might need to get creative in order to clear several more spots by the deadline to set the 40-man roster (usually around November 20th). I’ll be discussing this more in a few weeks.
Each team’s roster total (after reinstatements and the departure of free agents) is listed below to show how many spots will need to be cleared or how much space the team will have at the start of the free agency period. The Angels lead with 45, meaning they will have to remove five players from their 40-man roster. The Diamondbacks currently have the most space with 32, although they have one obvious club option to be exercised.
*These numbers will continue to be updated through the first week of November.
[Related: 25 and 40-Man Roster Breakdown at Roster Resource]
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Baltimore Orioles | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (40)
Free Agents (2)
Adam Jones, OF
Colby Rasmus, OF
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Boston Red Sox | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (34)
Free Agents (7)
Ian Kinsler, 2B
Brandon Phillips, INF
Steve Pearce, INF/OF
Nathan Eovaldi, SP
Drew Pomeranz, SP
Joe Kelly, RP
Craig Kimbrel, RP
—
Chicago White Sox | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (35)
Free Agents (5)
Miguel Gonzalez, SP
James Shields, SP
Jeanmar Gomez, RP
Hector Santiago, RP/SP
—
Cleveland Indians | Depth Chart | Indians Payroll
40-Man Roster: (34)
Free Agents (11)
Josh Donaldson, 3B
Adam Rosales, INF
Michael Brantley, OF
Melky Cabrera, OF
Lonnie Chisenhall, OF
Rajai Davis, OF
Brandon Guyer, OF
Josh Tomlin, SP
Cody Allen, RP
Andrew Miller, RP
Oliver Perez, RP
—
Detroit Tigers | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (38)
Free Agents (3)
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Victor Martinez, DH (Announced retirement)
Jose Iglesias, SS
Francisco Liriano, SP
—
Houston Astros | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (34)
Free Agents (7)
Martin Maldonado, C
Brian McCann, C
Evan Gattis, DH/C
Marwin Gonzalez, INF/OF
Charlie Morton, SP
Dallas Keuchel, SP
Tony Sipp, RP
—
Kansas City Royals | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (37)
Free Agents (2)
Alcides Escobar, INF/OF
Jason Hammel, SP
—
Los Angeles Angels | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (38)
Free Agents (6)
Chris Young, OF
Eric Young Jr., OF
Garrett Richards, SP
Jim Johnson, RP
Junichi Tazawa, RP
Blake Wood, RP
—
Minnesota Twins | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (36)
Free Agents (6)
Chris Gimenez, C
Joe Mauer, 1B
Logan Morrison, 1B
Logan Forsythe, INF
Ervin Santana, SP
Matt Belisle, RP
—
New York Yankees | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (37)
Free Agents (8)
Adeiny Hechavarria, SS
Neil Walker, INF/OF
Andrew McCutchen, OF
J.A. Happ, SP
Lance Lynn, SP
CC Sabathia, SP
Zach Britton, RP
David Robertson, RP
—
Oakland Athletics | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (35)
Free Agents (8)
Jonathan Lucroy, C
Jed Lowrie, INF
Matt Joyce, OF
Brett Anderson, SP
Trevor Cahill, SP
Edwin Jackson, SP
Jeurys Familia, RP
Shawn Kelley, RP
—
Seattle Mariners | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (32)
Free Agents (8)
Gordon Beckham, INF
Andrew Romine, INF/OF
Nelson Cruz, DH/OF
Cameron Maybin, OF
Denard Span, OF
Zach Duke, RP
David Phelps, RP
Adam Warren, RP
—
Tampa Bay Rays | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (39)
Free Agents (2)
Carlos Gomez, OF
Sergio Romo, RP
—
Texas Rangers | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (33)
Free Agents (8)
Robinson Chirinos, C
Adrian Beltre, 3B
Bartolo Colon, SP
Doug Fister, SP
Yovani Gallardo, SP
Matt Moore, SP/RP
Martin Perez, SP
Tony Barnette, RP
—
Toronto Blue Jays | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (36)
Free Agents (3)
Justin Smoak, 1B
Marco Estrada, SP
Tyler Clippard, RP
—
Arizona Diamondbacks | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (35)
Free Agents (10)
Jeff Mathis, C
Chris Stewart, C
Daniel Descalso, INF
Jon Jay, OF
A.J. Pollock, OF
Clay Buchholz, SP
Patrick Corbin, SP
Randall Delgado, RP
Jake Diekman, RP
Brad Ziegler, RP (Announced retirement)
—
Atlanta Braves | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (36)
Free Agents (9)
Rene Rivera, C
Kurt Suzuki, C
Lucas Duda, 1B
Ryan Flaherty, INF
Nick Markakis, OF
Brandon McCarthy, SP (Announced plans to retire)
Anibal Sanchez, SP
Brad Brach, RP
Peter Moylan, RP
—
Chicago Cubs | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (40)
Free Agents (6)
Bobby Wilson, C
Daniel Murphy, 2B
Jaime Garcia, SP/RP
Jesse Chavez, RP
Jorge De La Rosa, RP
Justin Wilson, RP
—
Cincinnati Reds| Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (38)
Free Agents (1)
Matt Harvey, SP
—
Colorado Rockies | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (37)
Free Agents (6)
Drew Butera, C
Matt Holliday, 1B/OF
DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Carlos Gonzalez, OF
Gerardo Parra, OF
Adam Ottavino, RP
—
Los Angeles Dodgers | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (38)
Free Agents (8)
Yasmani Grandal, C
Brian Dozier, 2B
Manny Machado, SS
Hyun-Jin Ryu, SP
John Axford, RP
Daniel Hudson, RP
Ryan Madson, RP
*Chase Utley announced his retirement with one year remaining on his contract.
—
Miami Marlins | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (35)
Free Agents (0)
None
—
Milwaukee Brewers | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (37)
Free Agents (6)
Mike Moustakas, 3B
Curtis Granderson, OF
Gio Gonzalez, SP
Jordan Lyles, SP/RP
Wade Miley, SP
Joakim Soria, RP
—
New York Mets | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (38)
Free Agents (6)
Jose Lobaton, C
Devin Mesoraco, C
Jose Reyes, INF
Austin Jackson, OF
Jerry Blevins, RP
AJ Ramos, RP
*David Wright will not continue his playing career but will remain on the roster and be placed on the 60-day DL for his remaining two seasons.
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Philadelphia Phillies | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (35)
Free Agents (4)
Wilson Ramos, C
Asdrubal Cabrera, INF
Jose Bautista, OF/INF
Aaron Loup, RP
—
Pittsburgh Pirates | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (37)
Free Agents (3)
Jordy Mercer, SS
Josh Harrison, INF
Jung Ho Kang, INF
—
San Diego Padres | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (40)
Free Agents (2)
A.J. Ellis, C
Freddy Galvis, SS
—
San Francisco Giants | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (36)
Free Agents (5)
Nick Hundley, C
Pablo Sandoval, 3B/1B
Gregor Blanco, OF
Hunter Pence, OF
Derek Holland, SP
—
St. Louis Cardinals | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (38)
Free Agents (3)
Matt Adams, 1B/OF
Tyson Ross, SP
Bud Norris, RP
—
Washington Nationals | Depth Chart | Payroll
40-Man Roster: (34)
Free Agents (9)
Matt Wieters, C
Mark Reynolds, 1B
Bryce Harper, OF
Jeremy Hellickson, SP
Joaquin Benoit, RP
Tim Collins, RP
Sean Doolittle, RP
Kelvin Herrera, RP
Greg Holland, RP
How could you have 42 in 40 man roster? We need bud selig back! Lol
60-day DL
Correct. If you have 40 on the 40 man and 2 on the 60-day DL and the season ends, so does the DL. Presto: 42
Of the players who can opt out, I’m thinking only Kershaw does.
I’m interested to see if he actually does. He’s not had a Kershaw-esque year, and he needs to really show he can perform this post-season. If he has a clunker, I really think he stays put.
There’s talk of the Dodgers offering him a raise or more years to get him to forego the opt-out. If Kershaw hadn’t pitched well enough to opt out they wouldn’t do that.
Yep. Kershaw would be the ace on a lot of staffs, but he essentially performed as a high-end #2 starter for most of the year. Still more than good enough for a contract in excess of what he has left on his current deal – 2/65.
I found it comical it even mentioned that Heyward and Melancon could opt out.
Just because it’s not likely doesn’t mean they can’t
I believe you forgot Vogt the catcher for the Brewers unless your not considering guys that probably won’t be tendered
Not on the 40-man
Wouldn’t be shocked to see Anibal go into a coaching role with the braves next year. He’s done great with a lot of the young pitchers, and would be a perfect pitching coach.
After the year he had, why would he retire? 130 innings makes him a stud in most rotations now. Can’t wait until the quality start becomes 4 innings.
last year only 13 pitchers pitched 200 or more innings. That number has consistently gone down.
Wish cat mando would see this lol angels 2019 salary says 117 million not 167
And once again, imindless, you are looking only at the pay for 7 players. Is that a whole team.?Are you intentionally obtuse or does it come naturally?
One more time…the Est. Total Payroll w/o Options (Guaranteed + Arb + Other) is $164.7M.
baseball-reference.com/teams/ANA/los-angeles-angel…
It’s not hard to understand
Sure it’s $117 million in guaranteed deals, but do you think they are going to non-tender the likes of Skaggs, Heaney, and Bedrosian?
Genuinely forgot that Rasmus was still in the league
Was going to make the same comment.
Didn’t he decide to quit playing in May or something?
July…they placed him on the restricted list so he could go home for personal reasons.
espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23991125/colby-rasmus-balt…
You can’t just say a month when you’re saying that about Rasmus you gotta specify year, too.
LOL…actually with him you can (so far). He left the Rays in July as well. At least he is consistent.
Some teams still have games to play, I know minnesotta has been eliminated a long time ago. This is premature.
Why is it premature? The playoff games have no impact on this list. This list will be the exact same when the playoffs are over.
Baltimore was eliminated long before Minnesota. Were you in a fallout bunker for the whole season?
Jason, I know it’s a pile of work, but when do you think you’ll have service time totals updated? Thanks
I wait for the official numbers to come out so they’re not estimates based on my count. The Roster Resource payroll pages do reflect post-’18 service time, though, when showing arb eligible year and free agent year … rosterresource.com/mlb-team-info/.
A little off topic but I’m waiting for the rosters to be officially expanded to like 27 or 28 because of this new wave of bullpening. They are gonna need to have like 15 bullpen arms just to do this all the time.
That can’t happen until the next CBA. So, not until the 2022 season. Unless the sides were able to come to an agreement before that, which I find highly unlikely. Also, this helps players more than clubs (provides more jobs but costs the teams more money), so the players would probably need to give up something.
You’ll probably see it when the CBA expires in two (three?) years….tho I can see the owners doing it earlier to keep the players happy, and away from the Pirates, Rays, et al’s books….
Also expect to see 4 year Free Agency, elimination of arbitration, 2 team expansion and realignment…..lotsa stuff coming down the pike…..
We might see one or two of these. I highly doubt we see all of them.
My money is on two teams moving, not two more teams. The season is already too long and MLB is having trouble drawing enough younger fans as it is without shoehorning in two additional teams.
A lot of what MLB does doesn’t make sense. Back when they first realigned and started inter-league games they said the American League had too many teams and moved the Brewers to the NL Central. A decade later they said the NL had too many teams and moved the Astros to the AL. Still can’t figure out why they moved the Brewers to begin with. They would fit perfectly in a division with the White Sox, Tigers Minnesota and Cleveland. Kansas City could have moved to the AL West and Houston could have stayed in the Central where they belong. Houston and Kansas City are both located right around 95 degrees latitude. I am sure travel would have taken less time from Kansas City to Seattle and Oakland.
It should be interesting to see how they align the teams if Portland gets a team. Living south of Portland I would love to get a team closer. Seattle doesn’t seem to be that far away but if you live close to Salem like I currently do you would know how long it takes to get to Seattle on I5 for a game. It bottlenecks in several places along the way and traffic is non-stop. We love the Trailblazers/Timbers and are a sports starved area. Maybe if we can get a team out here I would stop following the Yankees so much (I grew up on Long Island and am not a bandwagon fan) and there would be one less Yankee fan on here to berate :).
I agree with your argument, but I think you meant longitude…
The Brewers moved to the NL because owners at the time didn’t want interleague all season, the Brewers were still owned by the Selig family(Bud’s daughter Wendy was technically the owner), and the Royals passed first.
When the Astros deal came about the owners wanted interleague all season. The majority couldn’t wait for the big market teams to come to their burghs.
Brantley to the Phils? What would his contract look like? He is quite consistent when on the field but health probably is quite the concern with him. But would be nice to see him hitting with Machado :0 in the Phils lineup